At some point during the course of each year?usually at the beginning or the end, seldom in the middle ? food critics are wont to pause and take stock of trends they think are dominating/will dominate the high tables. More often than not what they come up with makes for fun reading, little else: After all, elusive varieties of mushroom or fish discovered on the Chilean coast, organic beef burgers or even cupcakes being proclaimed as the latest gourmet wonders are hardly likely to induce us into going out and trying these at the nearest restaurant serving them. But this year, the proclamations have been rather more sensible ? in that they announce the return of ?real? dining to a world, till now, full of the molecular and the fluffy. Hearty, solid meals, anchored in specific regions and cultures are supposedly back in fashion. Kitchen gymnastics, gastronomy, operatic chef performances, fussing over presentations are all out?and thank god for it.
In India, what does a back-to-basics approach really spell?given that we?ve hardly seen the kind of experiments in restaurants that the West seems to take for granted? To my mind, such an approach should necessarily take into account resurrecting some of our fantastic regional and heritage cuisines instead of blindly trying to bring home alien exotica ?Polynesian restaurants, Catalonian or African ones, invariably dubiously researched because most chefs in this country still don?t get a travel allowance and thus use the Internet as a reference point—are no good if you still struggle in your city to find a reasonably good ?Indian? restaurant. Luckily, and quite independently from what American or European critics are trying to hardsell, regional cuisines in India seem ready for a larger, mass market and we have many examples of new restaurants bravely trying to break away from the clich? of restaurantised Indian food to offer more authentic offerings.
But even within this niche category, if there is one specific cuisine poised to capture the imagination of diners in the next few years, it has to be Andhra food. In our previous columns, we have discussed the rising popularity of the southern cuisines ? from the four peninsular states. These cuisines, presented together at ?south Indian? restaurants of a newer kind are establishing a new idiom of dining out in India, demolishing the commercial superiority, till now, that Punjabi food enjoyed. But ask any foodie to choose between these various southern cuisines, regional and community-specific — Chettiyar, Iyengar, Moplah, Suriani, Mangalorean, Goan, Saraswat and so on ?and a surprising number of people will place their bets on Andhra cuisine(s). Hoteliers and restaurateurs?and yes, critics?have all expressed, privately, their conviction that Andhra food is going to be our next ?It? cuisine. Of course, it is another matter that this cuisine that we so broadly define is hardly one uniform suffused-in-chillies ?type?. Instead, when we talk of Andhra food, what we mean is usually three to four distinct cuisines.
Visiting The Park Hyderabad recently, where a new, Tarun Tahiliani-designed? restaurant, Aish, is going to serve a range of Andhra recipes as also heritage Hyderabadi ones, I came across chef Srinath, who is quite the authority on food from this state, having worked for years out of the Vishakhapatnam property.
The chef patiently explained to me the complexities of the cuisine(s) that are a product of community and regional cooking styles. So, western Andhra, the Telangana region, under Muslim rule for a long time (Hyderabad is part of it), has a fairly distinct cuisine from that of Rayalseema where you will find typical dishes such as Borugu Undalu (a sweet made of jowar and jaggery), and the impossible to remember Baadusha Jaangri Jilebi Pakam Undalu (a mix of steamed rice, groundnuts and jaggery). Jaggery and rice are, of course, common ingredients in the areas where these are cultivated in plenty.
On the other hand, typically, Telangana food, from western (and more arid) Andhra Pradesh is spicier?with more chillies— since this is a dry area and hot food which induces sweating is a cooling agent somewhat contradictorily. While the northern part of the state bordering Orissa and sharing the coastline is richer in terms of crops and seafood and shares some commonalities with the vibrant Oriya cuisine, the southern part that shares a boundary with Tamil Nadu has a distinct cuisine, quite similar to Chettinad food. And finally, Hyderabad, as we all know, with its Nizami past combines Deccani and Muslim influences to offer us one of the best of royal cuisines of India.
Sitting at Southern Spice, a poshed-up local cuisine restaurant in Hyderabad, that is housed in a bungalow, going through the formidable contents of a generic Andhra thali is further education. A huge mound of fluffy white rice forms the centre of this gourmet orchestra as we systematically go through various flavours, beginning first with the hot and pungent podis, ground, spicy powders and pastes, which supposedly cleanse the blood, ending with soothing yoghurt, again mixed with rice with an avakkal pickle. In between, the right order of eating includes first tackling the veggies and the pappu (thick dal), then the curries (vegetables, fish, country chicken,) or pulusu, the semi-dry, hot iguru and a delicious totally-dry mamsam (meat) fry. It?s a meal so fiery that you need a stomach lined with metal to finish it all. But it is well worth every morsel you take.
As Andhra meals become more popular, you too will be rooting for the chilli!
?The writer is a food critic